Jorge Gutierrez, who helped Abraham Lincoln to the first of two consecutive Class 4A basketball championships during the 2006-07 season, will play for California’s Golden Bears.
A 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard, Gutierrez, who committed earlier this month, played the past season at Findlay Prep School in Henderson, Nev.
Considered a junior two years ago, a Denver Public Schools check of the Mexico native’s grades late in the school year reclassified him as a senior. With fewer options, Gutierrez, a 4A Mr. Colorado Basketball by The Denver Post, opted for prep school and competed for the level’s national championship. Cal also released a scholarship player after bringing in Mike Montgomery as coach, who liked Gutierrez’s game.
“It’s great for Jorge,” Abraham Lincoln coach Vince Valdez said.
West honored.
Beth West of Class 5A Grandview has been named Colorado’s Gatorade girls soccer player of the year.
The senior is a member of the U.S. Under-17 national team, has a 3.67 grade-point average and signed with Texas A&M.
Added goalie protection.
Beginning in 2008-09, goalies in prep ice hockey will look more like catchers, at least from the waist up — it will be mandatory for masks to contain a flapper-style protector over the throat.
The National Federation of State High School Associations chairman Bob Gardner called it “a significant piece in goaltender protection.”
Four Coloradans nominated.
Four Coloradans are among 472 football players nominated for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, Jan. 3, in San Antonio.
Ponderosa’s Terry Alletto, Chaparral’s Jack Harris, Legacy’s Nick Kasa and Bear Creek’s Jeremiah Sirles are bidding to make the 90-player cut.
